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and it is singular that the same vine should have furnished two wines
as much opposed to each other in quality as in situation. I was
addressed here by Mr. Damen, of Amsterdam, to Mr. Jean Jaques
Peuchen, of this place, Merchant.
April 4th.
Cologne. Bonne. Andernach. Coblentz. I saw many
walnut trees to-day in the open fields. It would seem as if this
tree and wine required the same climate. The soil begins now to be
reddish, both on the hills and in the plains. Those from Cologne to
Bonne extend about three miles from the river on each side; but a
little above Bonne they become contracted, and continue from thence
to be from one mile to nothing, comprehending both sides of the
river. They are in corn, some clover and rape, and many vines.
These are planted in rows three feet apart both ways. The vine is
left about six or eight feet high, and stuck with poles ten or twelve
feet high. To these poles they are tied in two places, at the height
of about two and four feet. They are now performing this operation.
The hills are generally excessively steep, a great proportion of them
barren; the rest in vines principally, sometimes small patches of
corn. In the plains, though rich, I observed they dung their vines
plentifully; and it is observed here, as elsewhere, that the plains
yield much wine, but bad. The good is furnished from the hills. The
walnut, willow, and apple tree beginning to leaf.
Andernach is the port on the Rhine to which the famous
millstones of Cologne are brought; the quarry, as some say, being at
Mendich, three or four leagues from thence. I suppose they have been
called Cologne millstones, because the merchants of that place having
the most extensive correspondence, have usually sent them to all
parts of the world. I observed great collections of them at Cologne.
This is one account.
April 5. Coblentz. Nassau. Another account is, that these
stones are cut at Triers and brought down the Moselle. I could not
learn the price of them at the quarry; but I was shown a grindstone
of the same stone, five feet diameter, which cost at Triers six
florins. It was of but half the thickness of a millstone. I
supposed, therefore, that two millstones would cost about as much as
three of these grindstones, i. e. about a guinea and a half. This
country abounds with slate.
The best Moselle wines are made about fifteen leagues from
hence, in an excessively mountainous country. The first quality
(without any comparison) is that made on the mountain of Brownberg,
adjoining to the village of Dusmond; and the best crops is that of
the Baron Breidbach Burrhesheim, grand chambellan et grand Baillif de
Coblentz. His Receveur, of the name of Mayer, lives at Dusmond. The
last fine year was 1783, which sells now at fifty louis the foudre,
which contains six aumes of one hundred and seventy bottles each,
equal about one thousand one hundred and ten bottles. This is about
twenty-two sous Tournois the bottle. In general, the Baron
Burresheim's crops will sell as soon as made, say at the vintage, for
one hundred and thirty, one hundred and forty, and one hundred and
fifty ecus the foudre (the ecu is one and a half florin of Holland),
say two hundred. 2. Vialen is the second quality, and sells new at
one hundred and twenty ecus the foudre. 3. Crach-Bispost is the
third, and sells for about one hundred and five ecus. I compared
Crach of 1783 with Baron Burrhesheim's of the same year. The latter
is quite clear of acid, stronger, and very sensibly the best. 4.
Selting, which sells at one hundred ecus. 5. Kous-Berncastle, the
fifth quality, sells at eighty or ninety. After this there is a
gradation of qualities down to thirty ecus. These wines must be five
or six years old before they are quite ripe for drinking. One
thousand plants yield a foudre of wine a year in the most plentiful
vineyards. In other vineyards, it will take two thousand or two
thousand and five hundred plants to yield a foudre. The culture of
one thousand plants costs about one louis a year. A day's labor of a
man is paid in winter twenty kreitzers (_i. e. one-third of a
florin), in summer twenty-six; a woman's is half that. The red wines
of this country are very indifferent, and will not keep. The Moselle
is here from one hundred to two hundred yards wide; the Rhine three
hundred to four hundred. A jessamine in the Count de Moustier's
garden in leaf.
In the Elector of Treves' palace at Coblentz, are large rooms
very well warmed by warm air conveyed from an oven below, through
tubes which open into the rooms. An oil and vinegar cruet in this
form: (illustration omitted) At Coblentz we pass the river on a
pendulum boat, and the road to Nassau is over tremendous hills, on
which is here and there a little corn, more vines, but mostly barren.
In some of these barrens are forests of beach and oak, tolerably
large, but crooked and knotty; the undergrowth beach brush, broom,
and moss. The soil of the plains, and of the hills where they are
cultivable, is reddish. Nassau is a village the whole rents of which
should not amount to more than a hundred or two guineas. Yet it
gives the title of Prince to the house of Orange to which it belongs.
April 6th. Nassau. Schwelbach. Wisbaden. Hocheim. Frankfort.
The road from Nassau to Schwelbach is over hills, or rather
mountains, both high and steep; always poor, and above half of them
barren in beach and oak. At Schwelbach there is some chesnut. The
other parts are either in winter grain, or preparing for that of the
spring. Between Schwelbach and Wisbaden we come in sight of the
plains of the Rhine, which are very extensive. From hence the lands,
both high and low, are very fine, in corn, vines, and fruit trees.
The country has the appearance of wealth, especially in the approach
to Frankfort.
April 7th. Frankfort. Among the poultry, I have seen no
turkies in Germany till I arrive at this place. The Stork, or Crane,
is very commonly tame here. It is a miserable, dirty, ill-looking
bird. The Lutheran is the reigning religion here, and is equally
intolerant to the Catholic and Calvinist, excluding them from the
free corps.
April 8th. Frankfort. Hanau. The road goes through the
plains of the Maine, which are mulatto, and very fine. They are well
cultivated till you pass the line between the republic and the
landgraviate of Hesse, when you immediately see the effect of the
difference of government, notwithstanding the tendency which the
neighborhood of such a commercial town as Frankfort has to counteract
the effects of tyranny in its vicinities, and to animate them in
spite of oppression. In Frankfort all is life, bustle, and motion;
in Hanau the silence and quiet of the mansions of the dead. Nobody
is seen moving in the streets; every door is shut; no sound of the
saw, the hammer, or other utensil of industry. The drum and fife is
all that is heard. The streets are cleaner than a German floor,
because nobody passes them. At Williamsbath, near Hanau, is a
country seat of the Landgrave. There is a ruin which is clever. It
presents the remains of an old castle. The ground plan is in this
form: (illustration omitted) The upper story in this: (illustration
omitted) A circular room of thirty-one and a half feet diameter
within. The four little square towers at the corners finish at the
floor of the upper story, so as to be only platforms to walk out on.
Over the circular room is a platform also, which is covered by the
broken parapet which once crowned the top, but is now fallen off some
parts, whilst the other parts remain. I like better, however, the
form of the ruin at Hagley, in England, which was thus (illustration
omitted). There is a centry box here, covered over with bark, so as
to look exactly like the trunk of an old tree. This is a good idea;
and may be of much avail in a garden. There is a hermitage in which
is a good figure of a hermit in plaster, colored to the life, with a
table and book before him, in the attitude of reading and
contemplation. In a little cell is his bed; in another his books,
some tools, &c.; in another his little provision of firewood, &c.
There is a monument erected to the son of the present landgrave, in
the form of a pyramid, the base of which is eighteen and a half feet.
The side declines from the perpendicular about twenty-two and a half
degrees. An arch is carried through it both ways so as topresent a
door in each side. In the middle of this, at the crossing of the two
arches, is a marble monument with this inscription: "ante tempus." He
died at twelve years of age. Between Hanau and Frankfort, in sight
of the road, is the village of Bergen, where was fought the battle of
Bergen in the war before last. Things worth noting here are: 1. A
folding ladder. 2. Manner of packing china cups and saucers, the
former in a circle within the latter. 3. The marks of different
manufactures of china, to wit: Dresden with two swords. Hecks with a
wheel with Frankendaal with xxx (for Charles Theodore), and a xxx
over it. Berlin with xxx 4. The top rail of a wagon supported by
the washers on the ends of the axle-trees.
April 10th. Frankfort. Hocheim. Mayence. The little tyrants
round about having disarmed their people, and made it very criminal
to kill game, one knows when they quit the territory of Frankfort by
the quantity of game which is seen. In the Republic, everybody being
allowed to be armed, and to hunt on their own lands, there is very
little game left in its territory. The hog hereabouts resembles
extremely the little hog of Virginia. Round like that, a small head,
and short upright ears. This makes the ham of Mayence so much
esteemed at Paris.
We cross the Rhine at Mayence on a bridge one thousand eight
hundred and forty feet long, supported by forty-seven boats. It is
not in a direct line, but curved up against the stream; which may
strengthen it if the difference between the upper and lower curve be
sensible, if the planks of the floor be thick, well jointed together,
and forming sectors of circles, so as to act on the whole as the
stones of an arch. But it has by no means this appearance. Near one
end, one of the boats has an axis in peritrochio, and a chain, by
which it may be let drop down stream some distance, with the portion
of the floor belonging to it, so as to let a vessel through. Then it
is wound up again into place, and to consolidate it the more with the
adjoining parts, the loose section is a little higher, and has at
each end a folding stage, which folds back on it when it moves down,
and when brought up again into place, these stages are folded over on
the bridge. This whole operation takes but four or five minutes. In
the winter the bridge is taken away entirely, on account of the ice.
And then everything passes on the ice, through the whole winter.
April 11th. Mayence. Rudesheim. Johansberg. Markebrom. The
women do everything here. They dig the earth, plough, saw, cut and
split wood, row, tow the batteaux, &c. In a small but dull kind of
batteau, with two hands rowing with a kind of large paddle, and a
square sail, but scarcely a breath of wind, we went down the river at
the rate of five miles an hour, making it three and a half hours to
Rudesheim. The floats of wood which go with the current only, go one
mile and a half an hour. They go night and day. There are five
boat-mills abreast here. Their floats seem to be about eight feet
broad. The Rhine yields salmon, carp, pike, and perch, and the
little rivers running into it yield speckled trout. The plains from
Maintz to Rudesheim are good and in corn; the hills mostly in vines.
The banks of the river are so low that, standing up in the batteau, I
could generally see what was in the plains. Yet they are seldom
overflowed.
A TOWER AT RUDESHEIM.
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